eBay Sellers Upset at New Rates

[Rob Williams]

From our front-page news:

I received an e-mail from eBay the other day, noting lower rates. After I picked up my jaw and scratched my head due to confusion, I simply accepted the fact that "feebay" decided to begin pleasing their sellers, instead of making them irate. But it looks like I spoke too soon, as it appears the fees are speculated to do a lot more harm than good.

Bloggers all around the web are gathering together and speaking against the new rates. According to Ina Steiner, of Auction Bytes, the new rates could increase some sellers fees by as much as 33%, despite eBay claiming that 60% of sellers should enjoy lower rates.

It might take a few weeks before the real effects are seen, but so far, things are not looking too good.

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"Every seller's going to have to go back and review their business practices and see what this means for them individually," said eBay spokesman Usher Lieberman. It isn't just the fee structure that has sellers out of sorts: eBay also changed its feedback system so that sellers cannot give a negative or neutral rating to buyers.

Source: Epicenter Blog
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[Greg King]

I read through their statements (ebay) but I still cant see any reason behind this. I don't sell much at all on ebay but when I do, I hate to pay 5 dollars for a 40 dollar exchange... shitty.

 

[madstork91]

ive heard a lot about this in the last few weeks, but i dont ebay really. Whats the bare bones, simple version of what they changed?

 

[Rob Williams]

They lowered rates for some sellers, but upped it for others... namely those who sell high-value items.

I really hate the fact that they charge you a fee based off the final-value fee. It should be a flat-fee. Selling something for a nice deal of money and being charged $30+ for it is whack, especially since eBay doesn't own the item, YOU do. They are just the over-glorified classifieds section of the newspaper.

 

[madstork91]

Amen.

 

[b1lk1]

As a long time seller, I watched ebay slowly creep down. Now they just suck. I hate selling and taking paypal since it is just double dipping. Not really worth the aggrivation anymore. I advise anyone to just give up on them since you get ripped off selling, badly.

 

[Rob Williams]

Amen x 2.

 

[madstork91]

sad thing? Ever since eBay gained momentum ive noticed fewer and fewer pawn shops...

So the alternatives to selling online?

 

[b1lk1]

craiglist is ok for some stuff. I sell on some of hte big forums as well. Honestly, there is no good alternative right now. I keep hoping a new auction site will start and take off, but ebay is quite effective at pushing them out so far. Too many morons content to pay all the paypal fees and put up with their garbage unfortunately.

 

[Rob Williams]

I keep hoping a new auction site will start and take off

I am not a big fan of Google, but they are in a better place than anyone to launch a service that would directly compete with eBay. I have -no- idea why Google isn't snatching up this part of the market, because it's obvious people want an alternative. It's not like eBay has a patent on online auctions.

 

[b1lk1]

I think it is Paypal that is keeping Ebay at the forefront. For some reason, people like Paypal. I find it expensive to use and it is the other reason my Ebay sales are pretty much done. Google should pick it up soon but Ebay just has the name recognition going for it and the devil's child Paypal as well.

 

[Rob Williams]

It IS expensive to use, and yes that's probably the reason. However, Google has their Checkout service which is similar, so something like that is already in place. Sure, it needs to prove itself, but I'm quite certain that if people could sell on "Google-bay" for half of what eBay charges, people would flock there.